Following last year’s successful debut, the Independent Hotel Show returned to the Miami Beach Convention Center on September 18-19, 2024. The conference brought together independent, boutique, and luxury hoteliers and the suppliers that cater to them, creating an unparalleled opportunity for networking, learning, and business growth for this hospitality industry sector.
Insightful Seminars and Innovative Discussions
The 2024 seminar program offered a wealth of knowledge across various topics, including balancing AI with the human touch, sustainable luxury, mastering social media for independent hotels, design trends that encourage social media sharing to enhance brand visibility organically and more!
The sessions included industry leaders and experts offering practical advice that attendees could immediately apply to their businesses.
Rich Tuckwell-Skuda, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Anything Group (TAG), shared insights on the importance of Emotive Connection and Collaborative Tourism in attracting and developing repeat guests. Rich emphasized, “Loyalty is not about the guest being loyal to you; it’s about the hotel being loyal to the guest.” He also introduced ALBIE, an innovative booking experience that helps individuals spend less time searching and more time traveling.
The session, Cybersecurity in Hospitality: Protecting Your Guests and Your Business, was highly informative and unsettling. Yoram Shaked, Chief Executive Officer of Bright, provided several scary statistics on cybercriminal activity and shared ways to safeguard your hotel to minimize the chances of becoming a cyberattack victim.
Mihai Bote, AI Expert and visionary, moderated a discussion on Navigating the AI Landscape in Travel & Hospitality with Alexa Berube, co-founder of Reposite, and Jason Doebrich, vice president of technology at Virgin Hotels.
They discussed several use cases of this technology. A key takeaway: AI frees up time for hoteliers to spend with the back-of-the-house teams, front-of-the-house teams, and guests, ultimately improving operations and the guest experience.
Trade Show Highlights
The Independent Hotel Show—Miami exhibit hall allowed hoteliers to explore cutting-edge products and services from a diverse range of suppliers. From luxury amenities to stylish furniture to guest experience technologies and more, the latest innovations and trends shaping the independent hotel sector were on display.
Attendees learned how SLX Hospitality and its Boutique in a Box service can improve their operations. SLX Hospitality was created to bring a unique sourcing and service solution to the lodging industry’s design, independent, and boutique communities. They provide luxury hotel supplies and custom-branded amenities, ensuring independent hotels stand out with unique, high-quality guest experiences.
The Anything Group (TAG) is a full-service performance, marketing, branding, website development and reputation agency with a full in-house production and filming studio. TAG recently launched its new service units, The 5 S’s, to see Successes: SHINE – SHOOT – SOFTWARE- SPARKLE – STAY. Their Software unit is about to change the travel booking experience with the launch of ALBIE.
BlueWave Hospitality/Nurture Hospitality Group (NHG) specialize in unique and environmentally friendly hotel guest bathroom amenities, manufacturing 1-2oz plastic liquid containers and caps from 100% collected ocean-bound plastics. They also offer EcoPack plastic-free bathroom accessories. Their exhibit was also unique: a booth filled with a sand floor to highlight their focus on keeping beaches and oceans clean.
Lucky Hills Coffee supplies speciality coffee, focusing on high-quality, ethically sourced beans imported without middlemen in an ethical, transparent, and ultimately sustainable way.
Cold Snap provided samples of their made-on-demand ice cream for those looking for a frozen refreshment. The single-serve pods are shelf-stable and do not require refrigeration, and the dispenser serves a frozen treat in two minutes.
Thinking globally and acting locally, Hunter Amenities offers a variety of luxury guest amenities and toiletries tailored for the hospitality industry with the ability to develop customized amenity versions of brands.
Superglas exhibited their beautiful, unbreakable insulated glassware. Perfect to impress around the pool.
Wish you had the ability to leave hotel staff a tip even when you don’t have cash on hand? eTip provides digital tipping solutions, allowing guests to tip seamlessly through their smartphones with instant distribution.
Balconista Furniture provides specialized premium outdoor furniture solutions for hotel balconies and outdoor areas, focusing on creating stylish and durable pieces to enhance guest spaces.
Attendees looking to put their feet up could try La Siesta Hammocks. La Siesta specializes in high-quality hammocks using environmentally friendly materials, including organic cotton and weather-resistant fabrics.
ADA Cosmetics specializes in sustainable and luxurious hotel toiletries, offering eco-friendly, elegantly packaged products focusing on sustainability and quality. They have the world’s first hygienic and sustainable cosmetic pump dispenser system. CMO Gerd von Podewils provided an education on how traditional dispenser pumps are prone to back-contamination from stagnant water in typical bottle pumps. With a patented drainage system, the ADA Cosmetics pump solves that problem and is also completely recyclable.
American Pride Linen Company offers high-quality linens and textiles tailored for the hospitality industry. Its focus is on quality and comfort for independent hotels.
Hoteliers were impressed with Ecolo Synergy’s low-e-membrane window solution, which is designed for all climates. It saves hotels money and improves guest comfort.
Rotary Supply Corporation provides top-tier linens, comprehensive dining and food service supplies, resort essentials, and an expanded range of custom embroidery and room amenities. A family-owned business that is doing many things right since they are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year.
If you want to impress your guests with premium in-room coffee and tea in pods that can be branded to your liking and are entirely recyclable, turn to Solabev.
Cloudbeds offers a cloud-based property management system and booking engine that integrates booking, payment processing, and guest management into one seamless platform.
The platform is enhanced by a marketplace of third-party integrations, like Lightspeed, which provides seamless retail and restaurant transactions for your guests.
Pineapple Hospitality Inc. offers eco-friendly hospitality products and services, offering green solutions to help hotels reduce waste and improve sustainability.
AAVGO delivers audiovisual solutions and contactless technology for hotels, including digital concierge services, check-in kiosks, and virtual front desk solutions to enhance guest convenience.
luca + lex displayed eye-catching luxury “bathroom hardware that grabs attention and mirrors that tell a story.”
Fox Fold educated attendees on how they can transform the guest experience with their sustainable tissue solutions for hotels that lower costs and reduce waste.
Complete Textiles supplies a wide range of high-quality textile products for hotels, resorts, and spas, including custom-designed fabrics, drapery, and upholstery. These products create unique interiors that enhance the guest experience while minimizing environmental impact.
Florida Atlantic University offers hospitality programs that connect students with real-world experiences, providing future talent and hospitality education initiatives. Students who choose to major or minor in Hospitality and Tourism Management are prepared to successfully and profitably manage a hospitality or tourism organization. The university also offers many certificates, including Meetings and Events Management, Club Management, and Hospitality Management.
Cleaning with tap water? Consensus Group provides hotels with sustainable cleaning solutions and technologies. They can show you how to clean, deodorize, and sanitize by transforming tap water into aqueous ozone at the press of a button so you can have nature’s most powerful sanitizer on demand.
Yipy provides hospitality standards management software that can help improve your hotel operations and, ultimately, the guest experience. The platform is scalable to meet the needs of any property, from boutique hotels to large international chains, with no per-user fees, making it flexible and cost-effective.
With over 11,000 employees nationwide, Staff Pro Workforce Solutions provides staffing solutions tailored to the unique needs of the hospitality industry. It offers temporary and permanent staff to independent hotels.
ENSEO is the premier provider of hospitality technology, delivering hotel TV, managed Wi-Fi, room controls, and employee safety devices.
Florida International University offers world-renowned hospitality programs, partnering with local hotels to provide cutting-edge research and top-tier hospitality talent.
Looking for something that is good for the guest, good for the planet and good for the bottom line? Green Suites Hotel Solutions provides unique ways to provide sustainable, waste-reducing, high-quality amenities to independent hotels and resorts. These include free dispensers, free amenity liquids, and free shipping (within the 48 contiguous states) through a “per-occupied room” program.
Healtheair supplies advanced hotel air purification systems, enhancing indoor air quality and guest comfort. Healtheair’s air and surface purification system utilizes a proprietary and independently tested Energized Hydrogen Peroxide (E-H2O2) technology to effectively reduce harmful pathogens, bacteria, mold, mildew, viruses, odors, and allergens by up to 99.9 per cent from the air and surfaces in guest rooms or any enclosed area within your property.
These were just some of the many suppliers at the show that cater to the unique needs of independent hoteliers.
Plan Ahead: 2025 Show Dates
The 2024 show provided independent hoteliers with new ideas, solutions, and connections to grow business, enhance the guest experience and improve operational efficiency.
If you want an event that showcases the latest products, technologies, and services designed specifically for independent hotels, mark your calendar for the Independent Hotel Show 2025.
The Independent Hotel Show returns to the Miami Beach Convention Center on September 17-18, 2025, promising more innovations, insights, and networking opportunities for the independent hotel community!
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